Grain-car door.



R. R. HART & H. NELSON.

GRAIN GAR DOOR.

AIPLIGATION FILED MAY 2, 1912.

Patented Dec. 8, 1914.

THE NORRIS PETERS C0. PHPTO-LITHO, WASHINGTON, 0. C4

PATENT UFFIGE.

ROY R. HART AND HENRY NELSON, OF RAPATEE, ILLINOIS.

GRAIN-CAR DOOR.

Specification of Letters Patent,

Application filed May 2, 1912. Serial No. 694.760.

1 '0 all whom it may concern I Be it known that we, ROY R. HART and HENRY NELSON, citizens of the United States, residing at Rapatee, in the county of Knox and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Grain-Car Doors, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to new and useful improvements in car door constructions, and more particularly to auxiliary doors for use upon grain cars, in addition to the ordinary outer sliding door, and the object of our invention is to provide a novel form of door and door casing.

A further object of our invention is to provide an extremely simple and effective method of opening and closing the door from the outside of the car, the construction being such that the door may be raised a slight distance at a time which, of course, is of vital importance in car doors employed upon grain cars.

WVith these and other objects in view, our invention will be more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing, and then specifically pointed out in the claim which is attached to and forms a part of this application.

In the drawing: Figure 1 is a fragmentary elevation of a freight car with our door applied thereto, part of the outer wall of the car beingbroken away to better show the door operating mechanism; Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an assembled perspective of the door casing, door and operating mechanism. Fig. 4 is a detail sectional view showing the automatic lock and its manner of application.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following description and indicated in all the views of the drawing by the same reference characters.

For the sake of clearness, we have illus trated our door as applied to the conventional form of box car having a door opening 10 formed in one side through its outer wall 11 and inner wall 12, this opening being normally closed by an outer door 13 hung upon rollers 14 which engage with an overhead track 15 secured to the upper portion of the outer Wall of the car and above the door opening,

As shown, the inner and outer walls are spaced apart to form the usual air space,

and journaled in suitable bearings carried by these walls, a transversely extending shaft 16, the inner end of which projects beyond the inner wall and through asuit= able opening formed in the lower rounded corner 17 of a sheet metal door 18, preferably formcd of steel, which in one position extends across the lower portion of the door opening and in its other positionis swung,

upwardly about the shaft as a pivot to seat between the inner wall of the car and a casing 19 also formed of steel.

The door is secured in any preferred manner to the shaft 16, whereby the rotation of the shaft will swing the door to open and close the same. As a means for conveniently rotating this shaft from the outside of the car, we have provided a vertical shaft 20 which extends upwardly through the bottom of the car and which is journaled in suitable bearings 21 positioned between the inner and outer walls of the car. This shaft is provided upon its outer end with a hand wheel 22 and at its inner end with a worm gear which meshes with a screw gear 24 keyed upon the shaft 16.

In operation, assuming the car to be leaded with grain, the outer door is opened in the customary manner, the grain being held against the escape by the inner door 18. By turning the hand wheel in the proper direction, this door may be 'aised gradually to permit the grain to escape beneath its lower edge and the door sill to a properly positioned chute. When the door is fully open, it is completely housed in and protected by the casing.

All of the operating parts of the device are inclosed between the outer and inner walls of the car and are therefore protected from injury.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that we have provided an extremely simple form of door construction and door operating mechanism and one which is particularly applicable to grain car doors because of the possibility of gradually opening the same.

The rounding of the corners 17 of the door permits the same to swing free of the floor of the car and to engage closely against the door sill when in lowered position, while the slot 25 in the rear face of the casing permits the passage of the opposite corner 26 of the door during its swinging movement,

Patented Dec. 8, 1914.

the rear wall of the casing serves as a stop to limit the movement of the door upon opening the same. 7

As a means for locking the door in lowered or closed position, We have provided a catch 27 which is secured to the door casing and which has a spring pressed bolt 28 which, when the door closes automatically, passes through an opening formed in the casing to engage over the upper edge of the door. This bolt may be retracted when the door is to be opened by the knob 29.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

A door for cars, the car being provided with spaced walls adjacent the door opening, a tilting door, a shaft arranged to impart tilting movement to said door, a worm gear arranged on said shaft and housed between the spaced walls of the car, and a second shaft extending vertically between said walls,vsaid second shaft being formed with a worm which meshes with the Worm gear of the first shaft, the lower terminal of the second shaft extending throughthe bottom of the car.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

ROY RQHART. 1.5.

g V HENRY NELSON. [its] Vitnesses ARTHU Huns'r, MARY E. HART.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for i h r'le" ce izltsv each byladdre ssing the Commissioner of fate iits 7 Washington, D. G. 

